My bands playing a show at The Blue Lamp on January 12th........should be a great show and I'm thinking I'll have this done by then?? We'll see.............Or pm me and we'll hook up for a mini gtg
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First Build - 5 String, Neck Thru, Fanned Fret
- Thread starter DigthemLows
- Start date
My bands playing a show at The Blue Lamp on January 12th........should be a great show and I'm thinking I'll have this done by then?? We'll see.............Or pm me and we'll hook up for a mini gtg
With the wife outta town for a business trip I spent some time on this..........I filed the frets........still need to level and tidy up but there's not a sharp edge left!
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btw, can I say how much I love the grain of this board!
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Then I messed around with trying to use the inner template for routing my control cavity and decided 1. I really should have done the inner first. 2. ***, let's free hand this thing, it'll be covered with shielding anyways right? It turned out good, I actually filed it a little more after this pick to clean up the edges and it looks good!
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Let me tell you, the thing I've learned the most in this process is to practice and really get used to using a router. It's an amazing and scary tool!
Then it's on to making my control cavity cover fit, and hopefully have the grain match.........It worked out well! I'm happy for a first time try. I basically cut to within an 1/8" and filled/sanded from there.
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Then I sanded, sanded, and sanded some more, and for the first time put some alcohol on it to see how it's coming. At the very beginning of this build I had to make a decision about how to face the body wings. There's a lighter colored area on one section that I could have cut out. I left it because I wanted the front grain to flow a certain way. Well it doesn't bother me at all being on the back.
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And the front looks good with the grain flowing the way it does.
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btw, can I say how much I love the grain of this board!
Link Removed
Then I messed around with trying to use the inner template for routing my control cavity and decided 1. I really should have done the inner first. 2. ***, let's free hand this thing, it'll be covered with shielding anyways right? It turned out good, I actually filed it a little more after this pick to clean up the edges and it looks good!
Link Removed
Let me tell you, the thing I've learned the most in this process is to practice and really get used to using a router. It's an amazing and scary tool!
Then it's on to making my control cavity cover fit, and hopefully have the grain match.........It worked out well! I'm happy for a first time try. I basically cut to within an 1/8" and filled/sanded from there.
Link Removed
Then I sanded, sanded, and sanded some more, and for the first time put some alcohol on it to see how it's coming. At the very beginning of this build I had to make a decision about how to face the body wings. There's a lighter colored area on one section that I could have cut out. I left it because I wanted the front grain to flow a certain way. Well it doesn't bother me at all being on the back.
Link Removed
And the front looks good with the grain flowing the way it does.
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It is kind of looks like what a CT would look like if he were to make a fanned fret bass.
lowsound
lowsound
I like some of CT's basses. I always liked Darrin Huff, and Cliff Bordwell too..........so there's influences there for sure. I tried to make sure I wasn't copying anyones design, just taking what I liked from each. This has been a learning experience for sure........I still hope it plays.......I think somewhere in the beginning I decided if it looks better than a wish and sounds decent then I did a good job for a first build. 
I think somewhere in the beginning I decided if it looks better than a wish and sounds decent then I did a good job for a first build.
Dig...Your Goal setting paid off, quite the comparison.
Ok, Progress:
Finished my sanding and got about 8 coats of Tru-oil on this thing. I just love the way the flame popped!
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There's a small dent right on the upper horn that you can see in the above picture, but it's only at that angle so I'm not too worried.
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The top is looking good too...
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I also drilled tuner holes and put them on to see how it worked out.
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I think I'll probably do about 8-10 more coats and get the hardware and everything taken care of. I also need to file the nut, finish the fretboard, and get the electronics done. Oh, and level the frets.............it's coming along though!! I'm very happy with it at this point.
Finished my sanding and got about 8 coats of Tru-oil on this thing. I just love the way the flame popped!
Link Removed
There's a small dent right on the upper horn that you can see in the above picture, but it's only at that angle so I'm not too worried.
Link Removed
The top is looking good too...
Link Removed
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I also drilled tuner holes and put them on to see how it worked out.
Link Removed
I think I'll probably do about 8-10 more coats and get the hardware and everything taken care of. I also need to file the nut, finish the fretboard, and get the electronics done. Oh, and level the frets.............it's coming along though!! I'm very happy with it at this point.
Oh man... this is THE thread I was hoping to find here.... HALLALUJIAH!!!
Nice nice work, man. This Tru-oil... is it a particular brand of tung oil or something? Any links to manufacturers? I like the tung oil I'm using right now, Formsby's, but any comparisons or recommendations would be great.
AND I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR POCKETS! The pickup pockets look sooooo good with the laminates of walnut cutting right through each of them! If only that little detail wasn't getting covered by pickups... heh heh.
Nice nice work, man. This Tru-oil... is it a particular brand of tung oil or something? Any links to manufacturers? I like the tung oil I'm using right now, Formsby's, but any comparisons or recommendations would be great.
AND I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR POCKETS! The pickup pockets look sooooo good with the laminates of walnut cutting right through each of them! If only that little detail wasn't getting covered by pickups... heh heh.
The search function here will give you a crazy amount of info on Tru-oil, it's really easy stuff. I went back to this thread often Hambone on Tru-oil
The brand is Birchwood Casey's Tru-oil. It's all over ebay and the net and you can pick it up cheap at Walmart. It's a gunstock oil, so some sporting goods stores have it as well. It's about $4-$5 for 3 oz and I haven't used more than half after 20 or so coats.
The brand is Birchwood Casey's Tru-oil. It's all over ebay and the net and you can pick it up cheap at Walmart. It's a gunstock oil, so some sporting goods stores have it as well. It's about $4-$5 for 3 oz and I haven't used more than half after 20 or so coats.
Mmm mm mmm. I can't imagine how much fun it must be to just rub oil for a whole afternoon.... AAARGGH I need to go to so many stores tonight... I've got a bizzare idea for a finish for my project, and I know I'll want to clearcoat over it. But how your grain just jumps off that bass REALLY makes me wanna reconsider.
Have you done an oil over a stained finish? How does that look, or does the oil not soak in well over the stain?
Have you done an oil over a stained finish? How does that look, or does the oil not soak in well over the stain?
This is my first build and my first time finishing so I couldn't tell ya much else! maybe down the road!
